THE REFRESHING DRINK OF THE LORD

Jn.4:10-14 – Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She *said to Him, “Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”

I used to live in New Orleans about a mile or so from the Notre Dame Seminary. I would take my lab, Sam, for a walk to the campus there early on Sunday mornings as I talked to the Lord and prepared my heart for Sunday services. My destination was a fountain with life sized statues of Jesus and the woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria. It was as if they were waiting for me every Sunday to give me a drink. I know what your thinking, a little bit dramatic; I call it child like. I would reflect on the woman who was thirsty for a different kind of water that she found that day when she met Jesus. That’s the only place we can find that living water that satisfies our thirsty soul. We must come to Jesus and keep making that trek back to Him for the rest of our lives. Here is how Ambrose describes this verse.

“This well is clearly the grace of the Spirit, a stream proceeding from the living fountain. The Holy Spirit, then, is also the fountain of eternal life.… This water, the grace of the Spirit, is so refreshing. Who will give this fountain to my breast? Let it spring up in me, let what gives eternal life flow on me. Let that fountain overflow on us and not flow away.… How shall I keep this water so that it does not flow or glide away?”

I think often of those Sunday morning walks that I took several years ago. Now, the funny thing is that every time I ponder those mornings its like I get a drink of that Living Water again. I guess what Jesus said must be true, “If you drink the water I have to give you will never thirst again. It will become a gushing fountain inside of you that will flow forever”. Have a walk to the fountain this morning, Jesus is always there waiting for you.